Captain Mahela Jayawardene admitted disappointment after Sri Lanka slumped to a 167-run defeat to New Zealand in the second Test at the P Sara Oval on Thursday.
Outgunned inside three days in the first match, the Black Caps fought back to square the two-match series in Colombo, where they welcomed their first Test win on Sri Lankan soil since 1998.
Built on the back of big centuries from skipper Ross Taylor and batsman Kane and seamers Tim Southee and Trent Boult’s match hauls of eight and seven wickets respectively, the Kiwis achieved the result by the exact same margin as Stephen Fleming’s men 14 years ago.
“Playing at home, with the talent that we have in our team, I think we’re the more disappointed side with a one-all result. think we should have wrapped up this series and walked away with it,” rued Jayawardene.
“In the first two, three days, they dominated the Test match and put us under a lot of pressure. We didn’t handle that pressure well. We’re disappointed, especially coming here with a one-nil lead from Galle after three days of Test cricket.”
The hosts’ top order struggled this week, when veteran trio Jayawardene, Tillkaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara managed a mere 44 runs from their combined six innings.
“We have to make sure that we try and control the innings up front, especially when they are bowling with the new ball. In both Test matches, we gave away too many wickets up front and we never got any momentum. So they capitalised on that,” added Jayawardene.
“When our opportunity came, we wanted to make sure that we put up a big score, but we couldn’t. That’s where we made the mistake. From that point onwards, we were under pressure.”
